Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Despite slower economic growth in recent months following a strong showing in mid-2014, Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research Group says that it still expects 2015 to be a slightly better year overall economically in the United States.

At the direction of their conservator, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced on Thursday updates to their life-of-loan representation and warranty framework in order to provide clarity for lenders regarding the potential risk for repurchase.

To say the Republicans have an uphill battle ahead where GSE reform is concerned is an understatement. The president has the power of the veto pen and while both sides have vowed to work together on areas that they can disagree, the extent to which he would support major Republican led legislation remains to be seen.

Forty percent of American consumers polled in Fannie's latest National Housing Survey said they believe the economy is on the right track at the moment, flat from September's survey but up 13 percentage points over the past year. Housing attitudes were decidedly more mixed, however.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are set to send another $6.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury after posting a mild increase in profits for the third quarter. By the end of this year, the two GSEs, which have been in conservatorship since 2008, will have returned a combined $225.5 billion to taxpayers.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jointly announced that David M. Applegate will be the first CEO of Common Securitization Solutions (CSS), which was created by the GSEs to operate a new secondary mortgage market infrastructure, Common Securitization Platform (CSP).

Pershing Square Capital Management filed a voluntary notice of dismissal in the U.S. District Court for one of its lawsuits against the federal government over the sweeping of GSE profits into the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

According to Fannie's monthly volume summary, the mortgage giant's book totaled $3.12 trillion as of September 30, representing an annualized growth rate of 1.5 percent compared to August's decline of 4.0 percent.

Where the U.S. housing market is concerned, Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan said he is anticipating weaker home sales in 2014 than in 2013—but 2015 looks better. Meanwhile, the slowdown in economic growth this year has not dimmed the outlook among Fannie Mae's economists.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Thursday that U.S. house prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent month-over-month in August. On a year-over-year basis, FHFA's price index was up 4.8 percent, putting it roughly in line with its August 2005 level and 5.8 percent below its peak in April 2007.